Apparently we were close to experiencing power blackouts last night so tonight could be a repeat

[user8762456]

Time to charge up your laptops, battery packs etc and make sure you know where the candles and torches are..

I'm about to cook dinner now in readiness- just in case!

(The local substation is my unofficial weather station....we look down on its roof! We'd be in big trouble if it was on fire. )

I'll check all the chargers/lanterns again.

Dull calm weather is difficult for renewables.

We've used more electric than normal heating the flat.

Apparently the last time this warning was issued was the cold snap in 2011. I don’t think we had as much renewables then so perhaps usage just massively spikes when the weather is so cold for an extended period?
The warning is issued so providers can up their output to avoid power cuts. It is so typical of mumsnet that people come on and read this thread as meaning we will definitely get outages and then OP is accused of scare mongering when it doesn’t happen. What happened to the intelligence discussion that used to occur?

We hadn't had a power cut for years. We got one recently. Knew it was at least building wide due to the cries of annoyance coming through the walls/floor from neighbours. It lasted about five minutes. Was over before the priority user text came through.

We have turned off coal now as well. Radcliffe-on-Soar is off. Went past recently. It was strange seeing the tiny heap of coal that was left. (It has been smaller than it used to be for years) Went on a visit as a kid.

It happened on the Brexit then COVID threads too, @JanuaryJaguar . Scaremongering. But we weren't queuing for bog roll in lock down.

This is just scare mongering, someone
on R4 said yesterday that the country was in the exact same position this time last year.

This is Centrica paving the way for justifying their obscene profits when the numbers come out later this year. Nothing else. Calm down.

In 2 post code areas near me there were complete blackout la for about 2 hours as the demand on the national grid exceeded demand and crashed the system on 9/1. Sp ot absolutely does happen.

If people are interested, here's the website where they are published. There's a FAQ section that helps explain the process: https://gbcmn.nationalenergyso.com/

There's also the main site which has lots of interesting info on: https://www.neso.energy/

The person who mentioned they got info through about powercuts- I suspect that was part of a piece of resilience work that the CS was asked to do a few years back (and which had been planned for a couple of years before that, so not triggered by a particular event) about examining national preparedness for a national power outage. The details about the work used to be on Gov.uk and were useful reading when planning my own resilience to powercuts at home. I did a lot of reading around it at the time as I found it really interesting and reassuring the work that goes on to keep the lights on. These notices are part of that process.

Not been to this board before, it just came up in Active.
Quite interesting seeing what everyone else has, we have solar panels but should have also got the battery.
We do have a jackery but end up charging it off the mains sometimes, we could use that in a power cut.
Happily we haven't had one but some of my colleagues who live in a different area have had a few lately.

As far as I am aware the power cuts we have experienced have all been related to problems with power cables. For example lots of storm damage. I don’t think the grid has failed to supply enough energy recently.

Agreed they're playing catch-up fixing things here now after the storm.

Apparently wholesale gas prices have risen so we can expect to pay more for winter fuel.

WFH will surely affect the amount of energy used . There's no way I can work at home without heating. Pensioners will have had more heating on in the cold snap. The days of filling up the coal scuttle log basket and living in one room are long gone for many.

Googled!!!! Lmao

And we were still slagged off for it, even though we didn't need to go to the shops and didn't contribute to panic buying.

Peppers make people uncomfortable I think. This is just more of the same 'ill just get a home delivery if we go into lockdown' ...'everything will be fine, stop scaremongering' mindset.

Well that’s comforting. It’s always good to have someone pop in who knows more about the electricity supply than NESO, the government and the other organisations involved with keeping the lights on.

Welcome! It's not usually this argumentative on the Preppers board. I think this thread has accidentally summoned a bunch of people who belong on AIBU.
I have a Jackery too, although you've just made me think, we've been keeping it in the garage and it might not be the best place for it, given how the low temperatures affect batteries.

Yes but you were stoking panic in people where none was necessary.

My DH works for NESO. He wasn’t panicking and seemed unbothered so that’s good enough for me

No I wasn’t. I posted on a board which is specifically for those who like to be prepared for unexpected events.

Anyway this issue has passed so I’m signing off now.

Excellent. Then you're set

Nobody is panicking though. Maybe you should just hide this topic if it makes you anxious. Go and get a hug off your bloke and let him tell you it'll be ok.

What?!

As predicted, no panic necessary ☺️

It appears the cause of the fuss was people who don’t understand how the national grid works misunderstanding the data that’s reported. What a surprise.

In particular the fact that the reported capacity always excludes an amount to allow for our biggest source not being available. In this case, it assumes that the 1.4GW that comes by cable from Norway is not available. A built in contingency if you like. So, the prepping has been done for us :)

I don’t understand, are you saying there have been power cuts because of lack of power? As far as I am aware all that has happened is that power providers have been asked to step up to prevent that happening.

Sadly this thread shows how some people don’t understand the point of system warnings and instead link it with scare mongering. There are codes and practices for distributing power to avoid blackouts if anyone cares to read the ESEC.

Me neither, I feel like I’ve walked into someone’s club meeting to find people invading and ridiculing them, or something. Seems a bit off.

Anyway…

Our Tesla powerwall routinely charges from the grid overnight in the cheap power slot.

We only had the panels installed in August so we’re still experimenting. But charging overnight was always the plan when when our demand exceeds the sunshine.

Sorry, I’m not good with subtlety.

Are you ‘laughing your arse off’ because I used a search engine to check for news articles? I don’t get the humour there.

Perhaps you’ve found this thread (and board) isn’t for you. No need to make a fuss.